


three for three

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 19:54:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11320536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Ronnie had his proposal all planned. Joe, not so much.





	three for three

**Author's Note:**

> For one million words June bingo. Prompt : proposal

When Ronnie proposed to Caitlin, he had it all planned to the last detail.

He whisked her away for the weekend, to a fancy hotel with the most luxurious suite imaginable. Took her out for an afternoon walk and dropped to his knee as the sun was shining behind him, as bright as the sparkle of the diamond ring he was holding in his hand, but not as bright as the sparkle in his eye as he said the words she’d been dreaming of hearing, or the sparkle in hers as she said yes. She hugged him and they’d kissed and then he’d taken her out to dinner, except that when they got back to the hotel, they got distracted by their own private celebration and very nearly missed their reservation. 

All things considered, it was a textbook a proposal as there had ever been and Caitlin had thought that it was perfect.

When Joe proposes to her, it’s nothing like that.

They’re deep in the bowels of STAR Labs, having just vanquished the latest meta human causing chaos in Central City. She’s finished patching up Barry and Wally, sent Cisco off with Gypsy and a packet of painkillers with strict instructions to go home and relax. She’s left Joe to last at his insistence – “It’s a damn cut above my eyebrow, I’ll live,” he’d told her, with some asperity when she’d first noticed it – but it’s a deep cut that does require attention and because all his kids know that Joe’s an awful patient, they haul ass out of there as soon as possible, leaving him and Caitlin alone together.

She disinfects the cut without a word from her, doesn’t respond to his hisses as it stings, and she gives him a quick shot before placing a couple of stitches in it. “There,” she says finally as she snips the thread. “All done.”

Joe reaches up and touches the site of the cut; she slaps his hand away and he has the grace to look apologetic. “Am I gonna have a scar, Doc?”

His lips are curled in a smile, his eyes dancing and she feels her shoulders start to relax for the first time in hours. “I think you’ll be fine,” she says lightly, turning around to drop her instruments into a tray. Pulling off her latex gloves, she smiles to herself as she feels his hands settle on her hips, feels his lips press a kiss to the side of the neck. It makes her shiver and she relaxes into his embrace, her back against his chest as she lets out a long breath.

“You ok?” He sounds worried about her which is ironic considering she was the only one of the crew who had made it out unscathed this time.

She smiles, half turns her head so that she can look into his face. “I just don’t like stitching you up,” she tells him honestly. “Try not to do that again.”

Joe chuckles, dips his head to kiss her cheek. “I’ll do my very best,” he promises. He might be laughing but she can all too easily imagine the various worst cases scenarios with the dangers they face, and that’s without the dangers of his regular job added on. That much must show in her face because he blinks, a thin line forming between his eyebrows. “You’re really freaked out.”

She bites back her first, acerbic response, bites her lip and looks down. It’s on the tip of her tongue to point out that she’s already lost the man she loves in STAR Labs – in fact, she’s lost him twice and she’s really not keen on going three for three. The words get caught somewhere in her throat and he must see that because he turns her in his arms, cups her face in his hands. “Sweetheart, I am not going anywhere,” he tells her and her heart skips a beat because that’s all she wants to hear right now.

“You’d better not.” She’s trying for levity but he’s completely serious.

“For the rest of my life,” he tells her and what she sees in his eyes makes her catch her breath. “In fact,” he says after a pause, a pause where he drops his hands from her face, reaches down to take her hands in his. “There’s something I want to ask you.”

Still holding her hands he drops to one knee, takes a deep breath and opens his mouth.

She doesn’t let him.

“Yes,” she says and then she bursts out laughing at the look of shock on his face.

“Yes?” he asks, like he wants to be sure, and she nods again as tears come into her eyes.

“Yes.”

Three for three, she leans down and presses her lips to his and there is no talking for a long time after that.

It’s as far from a textbook proposal as you’re ever going to get, but Caitlin doesn’t care.

To her, it’s perfect.


End file.
